Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1475604
44 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I AUGUST 2022 2. Know your design limitations. If we are not making design decisions based on our "knees," something must replace them. Decisions are made on knowing the customer design specifications and expectations. Some say a glass is half full and others half empty, but there is a third option; as an engineer, I would say that the glass was not correctly designed to the customer's specifications. It is crucial to know your end product requirements. Answer this question: What are we doing? You may bend those objectives, but don't break them. When you make changes, they will impact the design in many ways, and it doesn't matter if the finished product comes in under budget if the resulting product is unreliable or doesn't meet the customer requirements. ere is the old adage that you may win the battle but will lose the war. You may get over the immediate emergency but lose customers forever. 3. Identify your design tradeoffs. is rule is the heart and soul of these princi- ples. A tradeoff means a balance between two desirable but incompatible features, a compro- mise, we'll say. Everything comes with trad- eoffs. Causality rules our day, but many of us act as if there are no compromises. You must be aware and identify them. Page 5 of IPC standard IPC-2221 has common physical fea- tures in your PCB design, the type of change, and the effect on resulting performance. Learn this information. e writers of that document put this at the beginning of the go-to standard for most designers because it drives everything aer it. Many go through the design process without considering their decisions' impact on final cost. We place our components, connect the dots, throw up our hands, and chant the designer's mantra: "Everything is OK. Every- thing is OK," as we slowly slip into a Zen state of denial. You must consider the four tradeoff areas: electrical performance, mechanical perfor- which was everywhere in the mid-1980s. She was the elderly lady in Wendy's commercials who asked, "Where's the beef ?" When belts get tighter, even fast-food companies try to give the customer less. is practice is no different for the PCB industry. For some, they pinch those pennies so hard they turn into quarters. at can be done successfully but requires some funda- mental principles, which is fascinating when it all unfolds. As PCB designers, we have a unique opportunity to reduce costs. First, you determine much of the cost of the board dur- ing the design process. It is true that every step of the PCB process now costs more, but that is also an opportunity to examine each step for cost reduction. I would like to put forth a few basic princi- ples: 1. Stop the knee-jerk decisions. I know this is easier said than done. When you're in the heat of the battle, emotions get involved, and judgment can become clouded. A firm decision-making process is nowhere to be found. ose making the choices don't fully understand the ramifications. e idea is, "We need to do something, anything." e knee-jerk is reactive rather than proactive, and the results are never pretty. You've seen this: Instead of using scalpels, the chainsaws come out and are flying, looking like a scene from e Texas Chainsaw Massacre. ere is a book I think everyone should read today to succeed in buiness. It changed how I looked at difficult situations and the decisions I made. I know it would change how your com- pany operates. e book is called e Tortoise and the Hare. Yes, it's the children's story. Our industry is full of hares hopping around when an event occurs; hopping here, hopping there, running around. But what was the lesson of e Tortoise and the Hare? It's the competitors who are slow, steady, and focused that win the race. Make your decisions count. Don't just decide to decide because you need to be doing something.